Sunday, October 30, 2011

More English invasion?

Earlier this month, I spent about a week in France. It was a very pleasant stay, even with my rather limited French. Because - well, I’ll show you. This is what I saw in Paris (photo taken from Google Search, because I didn't have a camera):


L'OpenTour - 2 day Pass 2 jours. I don't know about you, but I burst into laughter upon seeing this. It's a linguistic Janus. Supreme siamese compromise. The Strait of Dover finally swum through.

Well, this is just one instance; I have seen and heard more English than I had expected in less touristy towns as well.

I was going to jot down a few serious paragraphs about language contact and how all this is related to English education in Japan and so on - but no. The plain fact is, I like it when English simultaneously recoils from and embraces French, just as I like it when French recoils from and embraces English. So I thought I might share the joy with you. 

2 comments:

  1. Michael Vnuk12:57 AM

    Should that be the "Strait of Dover"? Or am I missing something?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks! - You are absolutely right. Yes, that ought to have been 'Strait'.

    I wasn't thinking/typing properly; too many raw oysters, you see. Thanks again - I will correct it.

    ReplyDelete